Topic: How can I get a playlist off my new 160 GB ipod classic and into itunes?

I just got a new 160gb ipod classic and it's great but I've recently encountered a bit of a problem... I need to get a playlist off my ipod that has been deleted from my itunes library and programs like Irip don't work for the new ipods... it's a very important playlist, took me days to compose, I really need to extract it, does anyone know how can it be done?

I think it's silly that you can't move playlists from your ipod back into itunes... apple should fix this...

If you auto-sync, the On The Go playlist on your iPod will copy itself from your iPod back to iTunes when you re-sync. So if you auto-sync, add the missing playlist which is still on your iPod to the OTG playlist, re-sync and then re-name the OTG playlist when it gets added to iTunes.

But if your iPod is in manual mode, have you tried Music Rescue? Their site indicates that it supports the Classic, give it a try:

I just got a new 160gb ipod classic and it's great but I've recently encountered a bit of a problem... I need to get a playlist off my ipod that has been deleted from my itunes library and programs like Irip don't work for the new ipods... it's a very important playlist, took me days to compose, I really need to extract it, does anyone know how can it be done?

I think it's silly that you can't move playlists from your ipod back into itunes... apple should fix this...

Depending on how many songs are in this play list you could hold down the center circle button on each song and add it to the on the go play list and then sync. This would create a new play list that once synced to itunes could be renamed and edited as you see fit. I know this would take some work but it is one way to save it. Another would be to change all the rating on the songs in this play list to lets say 5 stars then create a smart play list that only looks for 5 star songs.
I hope this helps.

CopyTrans will copy the files back into iTunes with ratings, play counts. It also copies the playlist into iTunes also. I don't think it recreates the Smart Playlist, just a regular playlist of the songs.

You might also be able to add the entire playlist into an On The Go playlist by holding down the center button when in the playlist menu and highlighting your playlist.

I have downloaded CopyTrans & followed instructions but it tells me I need 4GB of memory space (the entire contents of iPod mini); all I want to do is return the lists with playcounts, download dates etc. If I have to download all the music files I will have to buy a memory stick to store them on as my laptop does not have 4GB of free space/

If I connect my iPod to the almost empty iTunes (it is in automatic mode) it will remove songs from the iPod; I cannot work out how to change to manual without connecting up.

See, the problem is that you can't do this -- iTunes will not let you export a playlist that is on an iPod.

Umm, don't clip Bob out of the family album just yet <g> On my manually managed 2G iPod touch running iOS 3.1.3 and a Mac running iTunes 9.2.1, this works just fine. The exported iPod playlist has no file associations, so these normal iTunes playlist keys are missing from the exported iPod playlist: File Type, Location, File Folder Count, and Library Folder Count. Other than those four, all the other normal metadata is there.

Here's the real kicker -- the exported iPod tracks do not have to have the same Persistent ID as the tracks in the importing iTunes library! Apparently iTunes can locate the exported iPod track in an iTunes library solely on the sensible-to-humans metadata -- track name, artist, album, file kind, etc. -- without needing a Persistent ID match. For instance, I loaded a file into a dummy iTunes library in a test user account, and then loaded that file onto the iPod; then I exported that track in an iPod playlist. Then I switched to one of my normal user accounts (and a normal iTunes library) and also loaded the file into that library -- the two libraries assigned different Persistent IDs to the track, and each library had its own copy of the file. When the exported iPod playlist was imported into the normal iTunes library, everything went fine, despite the exported playlist's use of a different Persistent ID for that track. So...wow!

(And yes -- I took the next logical step and imported the iPod playlist into another iTunes library that did not have that file. As you would expect, the import failed since iTunes couldn't the file.)

So, as long as your iPod tracks are in an iTunes library (and some/all sensible-to-humans metadata is the same), an iPod playlist will import swimmingly. I guess the next step is to determine precisely which bits of metadata have to match, but I'm weary now....

Though I do agree with you -- 3rd party sw is still needed....to pull files off a non-HD iPod. But for the needs of the years-ago OP -- restoring an iPod's static playlist-but-not-its-files to an iTunes library -- lombaddddd's advice works...provided the files represented by those tracks exist in the destination iTunes library.

Update: I played around with metadata, and it appears that only Name, Artist, and Album need to match between the iPod and iTunes. And a fuzzy match at that... I used Paul Collins' new giveaway mp3, "Do You Wanna Love Me" as a test track. When I added an accent grave to "Love" (e.g. Lové) on the iTunes file, the iPod track still imported fine.

Other things that don't seem to matter:
File Kind -- no probs when the iPod had the file as mp3 and iTunes had it as aac
Track Number -- no probs when the iPod had the track as 2 of 13 and iTunes had it as 4 of 13

I had to devote the computer to some work, so no results yet on whether a difference in Album Artist or Part of a Compilation spoils the import.

i have tried the simple method you both have described in moving playlists from ipod to itunes, but it doesn't work for me for some reason. i am able to see the title of the playlist ("90's rock") move over to itunes, but none of the songs move over, it's just empty. I have an older model 30GB ipod and am using windows...is that maybe the issue?
s2 mac - i even went thru the thread you showed from a few years back, and read your info there, but no luck. any suggestions?????

The method outlined by lombaddddd is for getting just a list off the iPod...not the music files. This was a big deal at the time, 'cuz we were all used to iTunes playlist behavior -- importing an exported playlist required all the music files specified in the export, at the exact filepaths specified in the export; without the files, nothing imported, not even the list items. lombaddddd's method lets you import list items, as long as iTunes has files whose Name, Artist, and Album tags match the list items' tags. (So now it's possible to import iTunes playlists without the actual files; you just remove the filepaths from the export file. But iTunes still needs to see files with matching tags in order to import list items.)

You want to copy files off the iPod as well as list items, so you're going to need 3rd party software. (If you have a Classic or other disk-based iPod, you can get the files off by hand; there's a tutorial here at iLounge about that, up in the Help section. But it can be a hassle to do by hand; software is quick and easy.) I always recommend TouchCopy -- $25, works like a champ.

Topic: How can I get a playlist off my new 160 GB ipod classic and into itunes?